Celestial Chants - Live Kirtan With Gandharva

Gandharva Sauls

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 17, 2001)
• Original Release Date: September 17, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• ASIN: B00005QIQ1
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #367,917 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist
Gandharva Sauls is a musician, yoga instructor and Ancient Ayurveda/Multi-Dimensional Counselor. He has an extensive backround in jazz, having recorded and performed on acoustic bass with many jazz greats including Stan Getz, Warne Marsh, Pepper Adams, Howard McGhee, Woody Herman, and Joshua Breakstone. He leads Kirtan regularly in the NY/NJ area as well as around the country.

GANDHARVA is also the co-director of The Ayurveda-Yoga Institute Of New York and New Jersey. He has over thirteen years experience in holistic health and has certificates from The American Institute Of Vedic Studies, The Ayurveda Holistic Center, The New U, The Wise Earth School Of Ayurveda, and The Integral Yoga Institute. Gandharva is on the teaching faculty of The Integral Yoga Institutes, The New York Open Center, and the Alternative Medicine Program of Bergen Community College. After years of meditation and prayer Gandharva was given the sacred esoteric knowledge of reading the life blueprint of a person, which outlines their strengths and challenges in every area of life - from physical to spiritual.

Product Description
Celestial Chants - Live Kirtan With Gandharva contains call and response chanting, called Kirtan, of sacred sound vibrations that have been used for thousands of years for healing. These sound vibrations, called mantras, have the ability to take us beyond the mind, allowing our awareness to sink down into the heart. Thus, these chants open the heart, giving us an incredible feeling of well-being, and a sense of our Divine connection to nature and the universe. These chants bring peace and balance to our lives and can be used for yoga, meditation and for singing along to.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pure Kirtan From A Joyful Shaman, February 8, 2002

By A Customer

This Kirtan CD has a wonderfully intimate quality, as though you were chanting with friends in a yoga teacher's living room. This is not a highly "produced" CD; there are no flutes, violins, overdubs, or remixes. But the sound is excellent, of audiophile quality: clear, crisp, balanced, and three-dimensional. As a result, the five background singers (affectionately called the Celestial Voices) can be heard more distinctly than in other Kirtan CD's I have listened to, and one can appreciate their spontaneity and individual gifts. Gandharva's voice has a deep, strong, shamanistic authority, serious but sweetened with joy, playfulness, and sometimes an almost Celtic lilt and fluidity of cadence (I can imagine him singing sea chanties in a former life!).

Several of the tracks are mantras with specific purposes, which I found new and interesting. For example, Track 2 (Ganesha Sharanam) is a mantra to remove obstacles and receive blessings. Track 3 (Radhe Shyam) is a chant to celebrate the union of male and female energies. The standout track for me was Track 4 (Gopala/Hare Krishna), a shamelessly joyful, almost giddy chant which goes through several interesting rhythm changes, starting slow and then skipping up into the heavens. Track 5, by contrast (Ram Sita Ram), is slow, stately, and gospel-like (cavil: it's harmonies are less than perfect, but maybe I'll get used to that).

Any downsides? If you only like Jai Uttal's ambrosial sweetness and innovative musicality, or Krishna Das's effortless charm and polished production, this CD may be too lean and spare for you. The instrumental accompaniment is minimal; mostly drum and percussion. But if you want to try Kirtan straight up, with nothing to distract from the full potency of its transformative, healing powers, this CD is one for your collection. It is quietly friendly, and will grow on you.

CAVEAT: I am only a novice Kirtan listener, so please bear that in mind. More experienced listeners may offer more authoritative and helpful comments. Peace and love to all.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Healing, Joyful and Profound, May 4, 2002

By A Customer

Get exactly what the title suggest, the experience of live kirtan. I have been chanting for years and it is refreshing to finally have a CD that is not overproduced but is the best quality sound I've heard. This CD is the experience of having a live kirtan in your home. Gandharva has captured the essence of chanting mantra, one of the most powerful forms of healing in the world today. His selection of chants is inspired because they are easily accessible to the novice or experienced listener/participant. If you live outside the NY/NJ area and can't regularly get to a Gandharva kirtan, this CD is all you need. I play it for my yoga classes, for myself as I chant in full voice and dance around the empty studio, I even play it when I'm not in the room just to lift the energy of the space. All of my students love it and have ordered their own copies, even more than one so they have it available at home, in the car, at their vacation homes. Grounding and uplifting, serious and celebratory, immediately healing. Gandharva's voice captures all the nuances of a great performance.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars peace peace peace!!!, July 24, 2005

By	Open Eyes and Ears - See all my reviews

Listening to Gandharva and his kirtan group brings a smile to my face, and a groovin' peaceful feeling in my heart. Jai! Jai!